We all have that “favorite movie theater experience moment” in our lives. Whether it be the shock of Darth Vader telling Luke Skywalker that he was Luke’s father; the tears streaming down our faces as Rose assures Jack she’ll never let go… and then releases him to the icy depths of the Atlantic, or the satisfaction as the portals unveil a decade’s worth of superheroes all lining up in preparation for Captain America to cue them with an “Avengers… Assemble!”
We never really know these moments are coming, and when they do, they stick with us forever, and when we think of them, the goosebumps arrive, and we smile at the nostalgia of feeling something so moving. For me? It was the first time I saw a living, breathing dinosaur on the big screen.
Ok, so seven-year-old Stephen knew that dinosaurs were extinct (barely), but seeing them in such a loud, thrilling, real fashion in Jurassic Park was almost enough to convince me otherwise. The visuals were enough to give me nightmares about Velociraptors for years. I still remember my mom’s nails digging into my arm in terror when the Dilophosaurus extended its frill and screeched.
Years ago, I think calling Jurassic Park a horror movie would get a lot more pushback, but as genre-blending has become more accepted and respected among moviegoers, and as I’ve grown into studying the genre extensively, I’ve concluded that yes, Steven Spielberg absolutely made a genre-blended movie, with the trio of adventure, horror, and sci-fi being the main mix.
Throughout the ‘70s, ‘80s, and ‘90s, horror movies, as a whole, weren’t known for their excellent acting performances. Sure, there were some massive outliers, like The Exorcist, The Shining, The Fly, and Misery, but blood and guts were almost always at the forefront, and it wasn’t really until the last two decades or so that horror movies more regularly had character studies or focused on the acting aspects in the films.
One of the reasons Steven Spielberg had so much success with his prior horror movie, Jaws (which many people still debate on whether it’s horror) was because of the brilliant performances he was able to get from his characters. Richard Dreyfuss, Roy Scheider, and Robert Shaw completely encompassed those characters, they were those characters, and the same can be said about the entire cast of Jurassic Park.
I would guarantee that if you were to ask someone who Sam Neill or Jeff Goldblum is, their first answer would reflect Dr. Alan Grant or Dr. Ian Malcolm. The cast is so memorable for their roles that it takes the focus away from the completely horrific events going on all around them and makes the movie feel like it couldn’t possibly be a horror movie because horror movies aren’t big-budget blockbusters that have entire casts of lovable, iconic characters.
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So, why is Jurassic Park a horror movie? Let’s dig in, starting with the most obvious reason. It’s a full-on creature feature with man-made monsters.
This horror sci-fi theme has been around as long as Frankenstein, and when you switch Dr. Frankenstein with John Hammond and his scientists, and you switch the monster with genetically-modified dinosaurs, you get the exact same result: an experiment that gets out of hand due to the ego of its creator, monsters that are confused by their own creation, and the death of innocent bystanders… lots and lots of death.
And not just normal, everyday movie deaths. This isn’t a war movie or a drama where we expect casualties to progress the story. These are deadly monsters that are stalking and tearing apart their prey with ferocity.
The Tyrannosaurus Rex breakout scene is one of the most lengthy and intense scenes in movie history. The children of the film (who are supposed to be the most protected) are absolutely battered and in danger of being eaten, smashed, and drowned in sinking mud, all at the same time. Every second you think this monster is going to let up, it thrashes with even more force.
The T-Rex is horrifying; its roars deafening and leave Ian Malcolm anxiously breathing in response. The scene doesn’t end happily, either. Malcolm is severely injured, and the smarmy lawyer Gennaro, who we’ve already kind of come to dislike, gets torn out of his hiding spot and ripped into pieces for his acquaintances to find and remark on shortly after.
Dennis Nedry’s (Wayne Knight) death scene might as well be straight out of a slasher film. He comes across the Dilophosaurus, already soaked, visually impaired, and stressed. The creature stalks forward, seemingly playing with its victim, and after spitting venom into his face, fully blinding him, the creature sneaks into Nedry’s vehicle, waits for him to clear his face, and then attacks again, murdering him in the safety of his jeep. That’s a Michael Myers moment if I’ve ever seen one.
And then there’s the Velociraptors. From the very first scene in the movie, they are established as ferocious killers against even the most armed guards, and reinforced by Sam Neill absolutely scaring the crap out of the kid from A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child by simply describing their killing patterns.
Outside the fact that the raptors completely bamboozle and demolish Robert Muldoon, the Quint (Jaws) of this movie, without him even taking one of them down, they also rip Ray Arnold to shreds and leave his severed body parts in specific places to conveniently surprise the victims. Again… very Michael Myers.
Supposedly, there was a lengthier, bloodier attack scene between the raptors and Arnold planned by Spielberg, but the scene had to be canceled due to a real hurricane destroying the attack scene set. Samuel L. Jackson was more than disappointed he didn’t get to film his death scene.
The Velociraptors are so intelligent and quick to learn that they escape their enclosure within mere minutes of the power being turned off. Muldoon references this earlier in the movie when he talks about how lethal they are at six months (“And I do mean lethal”) and how the older raptor had the younger ones testing the fences for weaknesses.
After they escape their pen, the raptors are quickly able to learn how to open doors and figure out the ventilation system. There is nowhere our heroes can hide from them. They are literally cold-blooded killers.
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Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of elements from other movie genres in Jurassic Park. It’s got the dialogue of drama, the story of a sci-fi movie, and the thrills of, well… a thriller. But the horror is there, and it’s prominent. Just look at the differences between that first movie and every other film in the franchise.
No other Jurassic Park or Jurassic World movie is able to replicate those horrified feelings that this movie does (though the waterfall T-Rex scene and the raptor field scene in The Lost World come close).
Even after three decades, Jurassic Park still remains one of the most impressive movies ever created and one of my favorite movies of all time. The arguments will always be there on whether it should be considered a horror movie or not, but in this horror fan’s humble opinion, if you think Frankenstein or Jaws are horror movies, then Jurassic Park has to be one too. And well… uhhh… there it is.
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